Life is Strange ending comes with the longest wait yet

The fifth and final episode of Life is Strange is almost complete and shooting for an October 20th launch, developer Dontnod Entertainment has announced. Writing on the Square Enix blog, Life is Strange producer Luc Baghadoust says the end is in sight for the warmly received adventure game, which follows a teenage girl coming to grips with the powers and inevitable fallout of time travel.

If October 20 feels unusually distant, you might think to blame the events of Episode 4: The Dark Room, still hanging in memory, or the game's temporal shenanigans beginning to warp your own perception of time. But no, it really is taking longer and longer between each episode's release, with a whopping 84 days between Episode 4 and Episode 5's expected (and not guaranteed) release.

"Many things can change in the lead up to release but the team are working really hard to try and hit this date," Baghadoust writes. "We know the wait may be a bit longer than some of you were hoping for but we want to ensure Episode 5 is the best it can be. Your tweets, comments and messages have kept us going through this busy stage of development and we can’t thank you enough for your continued support."

The inconsistent development time between episodes of Life is Strange is a clear sign that Dontnod, like nearly every other developer working in the episodic space today, is still trying to figure out the complex clockwork of multi-part game production. It's likely a constant struggle with maintaining a reasonable schedule, meeting the demands of the publisher and incorporating the feedback from players to improve the story along the way.

If you've stuck with it all the way to the end, though, and despite the delays creeping in gradually since January, then Life is Strange must be doing something right.